Cawthorn Camps

 Whenever I am ill and all I am left with is my brain for company, I find a subject to think about.  So this time 'Cawthorn Roman Practice Camps' fell into place.  I suddenly remembered the Romans were here, in this part of the country to put down the large Brigantes tribe.  The camps, I think two, but they maybe have been a third were situated on a scarp overlooking the land below. And they have always been interpreted as practise camps.  In other words the Roman soldiers dug the ditches and lived on this tract of land as part of their training.  Just like, in fact today's soldiers do.  Cawthorn is but four miles from Pickering and should I feel a need for a walk it wasn't too far to take a reluctant spaniel, my Lucy.  Not that she appreciated it one bit!

I suddenly remembered (migraines are good at jolting the memory) that someone had either asked me onto his F/B or I had flashed through it.  The name came back to me George Chaplin of Brigantes Nation.  A comprehensive guide and viewpoint.  He had probably recognised me from my role in Heritage Action, all so long ago.......

So his blog is on my side role at the moment.  The large area of Yorkshire and Cumbria were part of a loose confederation of tribes 'Up North'.  The Romans were of course bent on defeating them, and of course did not succeed with the Picts? in Scotland as Hadrian's Wall testifies.  

I have always been curious about the Brigante Tribe, for a start it had a woman leader - Cartimandu from about AD43 to AD69. Similar of course to the Iceni Tribe on the East coast with Boudica as leader of the tribe.  The Romans raped both Bodica's daughters to subdue her but rather than give in Boudica pulled together a large army and ravaged the towns of both Colchester and St.Albans, killing the Roman Matrons in a gruesome manner.

But to return to Queen Cartimandu, one of the first Queens.  She seems to have come from a noble family and was a leader by right.  She had trouble with her co-leader and husband Venutius.  This was because (well apart from the obvious) Cartimandu had betrayed a fellow resistance leader, Caractacus to the Romans, and had captured him and sent him to Rome in chains. Even her people did not like her.  But currying favour with the enemy and getting rewards is power to the corrupt who seek only for themselves.  Today's history might prove that also, mankind never moves far from greed.

So these 'practise camps' stood in the British countryside with Roman roads to Malton (and then to York) where you can find in the Museum at Malton, finds from the digs that took place.  Also interestingly enough, grub Haus  were found which relate to a later Saxon settlement.